► New Audi Prologue Allroad revealed
► It’s an A8 estate soft-roader concept
► See it at Shanghai motor show 2015
Audi will show the new Prologue concept car for the third time – and this one’s in Allroad soft-roader guise. It’s another clear indication of what to expect from the new 2016 A8 replacement.
Bound for a debut at the Auto Shanghai motor show next week, the Audi Prologue Allroad takes the familiar style first seen at the 2014 Los Angeles show and then the Prologue Avant at Geneva, and adds the accoutrements of an SUV-stylised estate.
The Allroad genre has proved successful for Audi and it’s now available across much of its range – and, indeed, the group.
Audi Prologue Allroad: a 724bhp soft-roader
This is a plug-in hybrid delivering a combined 724bhp of grunt. That’s serious firepower, explained by the 4.0 TFSI V8 twin-turbo, an engine familiar from large Audis and Bentleys.
Here, an electric motor is integrated into the eight-speed automatic gearbox, beefed-up to cope with the 664lb ft (900Nm) of torque produced by both engines. Lithium-ion battery packs with a 14.1kWh capacity are packaged in the rear.
Quattro drivetrain is standard and performance claims are typically sky-high, as is the wont of conceptual show cars. Audi claims 0-62mph in 3.5sec and just 56g/km of CO2.
That equates to 118mpg combined economy. We somehow can’t see this delivering in the real world, can you?
How does the Allroad differ from the Prologue Avant?
It’s usual soft-roader fare here: the body rides 77mm higher than the estate iteration of the Prologue, and a more subtle kind of cladding is applied.
Note also the latest iteration of the so-called Audi ‘single-frame’ grille, said to evolve the e-tron family face of Ingolstadt’s electrified range. And this one comes with inductive charging, so you don’t need to plug it in to top up the battery overnight; merely park over a charging plate and the car recharges itself. Neat.
This is a long car: at 5130mm, it indicates what an A8 wagon could look like – expect this car to provide plenty of clues to the forthcoming next-generation A8 family, which will expand to include a lifestyle wagon as well as the next-generation Audi A6 Allroad due in 2017.